The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Draper is breaking her silence on husband Jordan Ngatikaura filing for divorce after five years of marriage.
“In the last year, I’ve told him, actually, a few different times I want to get divorced. But he always calms me down,” Jessi claimed during the Wednesday, March 25, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I had been in limbo for a while, and anyone that’s lived in limbo knows it’s excruciating. Where I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this is right or not.’ I literally woke up one day and — it’s such a simple thought — but I was like, ‘I can change this. I can change my life. I can be happy.’”
She added, “It was like something flipped and I was like, ‘I’m done,’ and I could not go back after that.”
Jessi claimed she told Jordan on March 13 that she wanted to to get a divorce.
“I did end it with him, so I knew it was coming, but we had made an agreement to do it together, and he blindsided me and filed because he wanted the headline first,” the Mormon Wives star said.
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Jessi further claimed that she got a head’s up about Jordan’s divorce filing after getting a message from TMZ, noting that her “heart sunk” after getting that alleged message.
“We agreed to tell our children together before filing, and we haven’t done that,” she added, calling it “a betrayal.”
Jordan filed the paperwork on Thursday, March 19. In a statement to Us Weekly at the time, Jordan shared that it “has not been an easy decision and it comes with a heavy heart.”
“I’m grateful for the shared memories and the lessons,” the statement read. “While our paths are now moving in different directions, my priority remains my children and ensuring they feel loved, supported, and protected through this transition.”
The statement continued, “I am committed to handling this next chapter with kindness and respect. I kindly ask for privacy and understanding as we navigate this as a family.”
Jordan filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) request on Friday, March 20, and Jessi filed her opposition the same day, per court documents obtained by Us. No further details about the claims in the documents were made available. News broke on Tuesday, March 24, that the TRO request was denied.
Jessi and Jordan, who tied the knot in 2020, share son Jagger and daughter Jovi, whom they welcomed in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
She claimed during Wednesday’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast episode that Jordan “attempted” to include a clause in their divorce so Jessi “couldn’t go on any podcast to talk about him.” However, she “didn’t sign anything” before sitting down with host Alex Cooper. (Us has reached out to Jordan for comment.)
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The pair were open about their marital ups and downs on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, with Jessi being accused of infidelity in season 2. She ultimately revealed she had an emotional affair with Bravo star Marciano Brunette after meeting while filming Vanderpump Villa. Jessi informed Jordan of the emotional affair, and the pair continued to work on their marriage during season 4 of the Hulu series.
Jessi said during Wednesday’s podcast episode that Jordan claims the divorce was because of what happened with Marciano.
“He put in the papers that we ended it because I had an affair, and he’s talking about Marciano, the person I kissed a year and a half ago. That’s what he put as the reason. I was like, ‘What?’ We’ve worked through that, it’s already been proven on TV that I didn’t sleep with him, so crazy.”
Jessi alleged on Wednesday that Jordan slept with escorts ahead of Mormon Wives season 1, before before anything even went down with Marciano.
At one point in their marriage, Jessi and Jordan had a fight about her changing her last name back to Draper. During Mormon Wives season 4, she got emotional when she revisiting their prenup.
“Jordan is still really upset about the name change, even though I know it’s what’s right for me. Even though I haven’t made a decision about Jordan and I, I met with my dad to go over this prenup,” she explained. “But it’s been over five years.”
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While Jessi didn’t remember what was in the initial paperwork, she voiced concern about Jordan being a “hard person to be married to” and a “harder person to divorce.”
“We discovered that me and Jordan did not have witnesses sign [the prenup], so that could mean that the prenup is voided,” Jessi revealed to her costars before becoming emotional. “This information has really rattled me because I just don’t know what that could mean for me, my business and the security of my family.”
Jessi explained that she was worried about putting her business and family in a “terrible situation.”
“I just don’t know what will happen,” she said. “I’ll probably lose millions. He’s entitled to anything in the last five years that I’ve created. When we got married, I was worth a lot less than I am now. So it just sucks and I don’t want to do that to my family.”
She continued, “He’s entitled to it, so I could see him doing it [where he asks for] child support or I would owe him alimony. … Jordan has made a lot of changes, but if I’m basing it off of the Jordan that I was married to for four years — that Jordan would be a very hard person to divorce. He would be spiteful and vindictive. I think he would play a little bit dirty. So I just have to prepare myself that if we do get divorced that it could go that way.”
